The mesmerizing world of Seoul in If I Had Your Face comes across as obsessed with the high standards of beauty. Although the lifestyle for which they opt is dazzling and glamorous, the pitfall of disillusionment is always there waiting, as the wealthy and elite class of Korean men seem only interested in commodifying and objectifying them. This sadness and sense of dislocation are found in all the characters. For instance, Kyuri, who seems to achieve success through multiple facial surgeries and works as an elite-class salon room girl, is the most melancholic as well because of the alcoholic clients with whom she has to spend her nights. The lives of these four women, affected by both unattainable beauty standards and social hierarchy, oscillate between distress and relief. It revolves around the alternate perspective of four main female characters: Kyuri, a high-class party host Ara a mute hair stylist with some painful memories of an assault in the past Wonna, an office worker and a newlywed and Miho, a talented artist whose scholarship to study in New York ensnared her in a hyperwealthy crowd.

The novel highlights the beauty industry and social strata of postmodern South Korea while exploring themes of childhood abuse, patriarchy, and misogyny. Women face a precarious situation of competition and social stratification, which is the hallmark of the city’s cultural demands a heavy toll for the endless quest of self-solicitude and socially upward mobility. We find these young ladies confronting a capitalist, consumerist, and competitive society with the help of real friendship and concurrence, striving against the prescribed, uneven social hierarchies projected in form of patriarchy, class distinction, and inequality. 274 pages.įRANCES CHA, A FORMER travel and culture reporter for CNN in Seoul, aims to engross in her debut novel If I Had Your Face, a desperate yearning for survival of four female characters amidst the social hub of contemporary South Korea.

Frances cha if i had your face